Flight Of The Bumble-Bee

Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) was a classical composer and this piece is from his opera "The Tale of Tsar Saltan". The piece tells a story of a prince who turns himself into a bumble-bee and stings his aunts. One of my favourites and its no wonder why many guitarists have played this.

Why to play this on guitar?

1. For musical idea. Chromatic passages of this piece are very inventive.2. For technical exercise. You need very accurate and fast picking hand here. This is excellent piece to practise your right hand stamina. Your right hand will be in constant movement through the piece. You must use all your left hand fingers all the time and this should be perfect exercise for those who have a weak pinkie. Also you have to use a big part of the fretboard here and lots of position shifting is included.3. For showing off (dont take this seriously, circus is for showing off).

Few performance notes

1. Warm up first. You dont want tendonitis so be careful.2. Start slowly. Never try to play fast before you can play the piece slowly but accurately. You should play in relaxed way, raise the speed only after you can do this.3. Use a metronome. It WILL help you, believe me.4. You can use clean or distorted sound, but I suggest you to avoid too much gain or any reverb when you practise. You cant correct your mistakes if you try to hide them. If this doesnt sound right, try to change your playing before you do anything for your sound.5. This is only one way to play the piece. Feel free to use different fingering if this doesnt be right for your playing style. Altering fingerings is very educational sometimes.